Exploring the wonders of creation through a 50mm lens...and other lenses too.

You probably know by now that my go-to gear setup for taking Weekly Fifty photos is a Nikon D750 and 105mm macro lens. After acquiring, and then extensively using, a small but not-too-shabby collection of camera gear over the years it is this combination that I keep returning to because it just does such a phenomenal job in almost every photographic situation in which I find myself. I haven’t done an official inventory, but I would guess that about 90% of the photos I have shared on Weekly Fifty this year (and probably last year) were taken with this camera/lens combination. However, and you probably could tell that this was coming, there are some situations where it just isn’t all that great. The most obvious is, of course, any time that a true telephoto lens would just get better results–particularly when it comes to nature and wildlife. Even simple shots of a squirrel, like you see here, are much easier with a zoom lens or telephoto prime with a focal length of at least 200mm.

And yet, that’s not to say these kinds of photos are impossible with other lenses such as a 105mm. They just require a bit more patience, practice, and to be honest, luck. I often have my camera in hand as I circumnavigate the OSU Theta Pond, but unless I also have my 70-200mm zoom lens it’s just not that easy to get pictures of the squirrels, geese, and other animals hanging around the are. And because that lens is heavy and cumbersome, well, it usually gets left at home in favor of the 105mm or even the classic 50mm lens that started it all. What can I say? It’s the reality of the situation. Who knows, maybe someday I’ll get the 150-600mm Sigma lens I’ve kind of, sort of, had my eye on for a few years. Until then, though, patience is the name of the game and that’s what we’ve got here with this squirrel picture.

I saw this rascally little rodent circling one of the cypress trees near the pond and even though I just had my usual camera/lens combination, I thought I would make a go of it and see if I could get a good, or even halfway decent, shot. Taking photos of squirrels with a 105mm lens is tricky, but not impossible, and sometimes it’s nice to have a bit of a challenge. It mostly meant moving slowly, waiting, moving a bit more, waiting some more…you get the idea. Eventually he held still long enough for me to fire off just a couple of clicks of the shutter, and honestly, I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. I like that the squirrel’s pose is more interesting than if he were just sitting there minding his own business. It’s like we’re engaged in a bit of a face-off, him wondering what I’m up to and me just hoping he holds on for just a few more seconds while I take his photo. Thankfully, he did :)

I shot this at f/5.6 to keep the depth of field under control, 1/180 second to minimize motion blur, and ISO 400 because that’s what my camera decided to use in Auto-ISO. If you zoom in super close you might find a few things to nit-pick, but overall I think it turned out just fine. I haven’t taken a photo like this in a good long while, and who knows, maybe one of these days I’ll bring the ol’ zoom lens, leave the 105mm at home, and see what else I might be able to get.

Finally, as this image just happens to be posted on December 25, and is also the last one of the year, allow me to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy, blessed, and joy-filled new year. Thank you for being part of Weekly Fifty, and here’s to a 2026 full of photographic possibilities 📸

Welcome to another Year in Review! Join me as I look back on the past year, share my top three photos, talk a bit about AI, show a few of the pieces of gear I have used, and look ahead to 2025 and beyond. It’s been another great year here at Weekly Fifty, and I couldn’t do it without all of you :)

Check out the podcast my brother Phil and I are doing, which is all about parenting and photography: Camera Dads

This is a photo I have been thinking about taking for months, but until recently I simply did not have the opportunity to do so. One of my friends at work has several dozen tiny colored glass ducks lining the top of her cubicle walls, and it’s the kind of scene that’s just ideal for a close-up shot with a macro lens. The problem is, our cubicle walls are about seven feet high so taking a shot like this requires a tripod and a bit of time to set it up. As a result, there aren’t many opportunities to get a picture of these little ducks. However, one morning recently I decided to finally make the shot happen and I’m so glad I did.

I got to work early before anyone else was in my department, set up my tripod with each leg resting on a chair, stood on a stool, and took the shot. I played around with the aperture a bit, but ultimately decided that this one at f/16 gave me just the right amount of depth of field: the entire yellow duck is in focus, while those on either side of it are not and the background recedes into a beautiful blurry rainbow of color and light. I didn’t need to do any cropping, and the only editing (aside from my usual color adjustments like white balance, exposure, etc.) was cleaning up some dust and dirt using the manual (i.e. not AI-powered) spot-removal tool in Lightroom.

The only thing that bums me out just the slightest bit about this image is the yellow duck is set against a yellow background. If I had been paying more attention in the moment I would have simply swapped the position of the yellow and purple ducks, but the one thing that ultimately redeems the image is the shiny lights dancing on the surface of the subject. Were it not for those I think the yellow duck would melt right into the background and the shot would be…well…not ruined but not nearly as good. Ah well, you live and you learn, eh? And who knows, maybe someday I’ll try the shot again just to see if I can improve it a bit.

It’s not uncommon to walk past the rows of bushes and shrubberies on the Oklahoma State University campus and see birds sitting on top of them, just kind of hanging out and going about their day. The problem, from a photographic perspective, is that these little avian friends often flutter away before I can get close enough to take their picture. Not always, but most of the time, and as a result it’s just not easy to get the kind of shots that I’m often going for. Not with the lenses I usually have with me, anyway. So when I saw this feather resting where its owner once sat, I thought I might as well use it as the next best thing to actually capturing an image of a bird.

The basic idea with this composition is really, really simple. It’s a single easily-identifiable subject set against a blurry background. There’s nothing else to distract the viewer, and in that sense it’s also kind of boring and pedestrian. And yet, there’s a sense of activity present because of the nature of the subject. You get the feeling that the feather could flit away at the slightest breeze, and you just so happen to be catching a glimpse of it before it disappears. So while it’s not exactly groundbreaking in terms of how the shot is composed, there’s still something of value here and I like the sense of peace and calm that it tends to instill.

I shot this with my 105mm macro lens at f/5.6 to get the depth of field under control, and if you click through on the image to the original file on Flickr you’ll see a ton of detail in the individual white strands on the feather–the kind of thing you just can’t capture with a mobile phone. You might also notice how the feather seems to be resisting the wind ever so slightly, with some strands bent one way and others bent in the opposing direction. It all lends to the overall sense of kinetic energy while at the same time seeming still and composed.

This is one of those pictures that, like others I have shared recently, is just fun to take. It’s not going to upend the photography world, but I enjoy the result and I got to practice my image-creation skills so that’s a win in my book :)

Over the years, one of my favorite subjects to shoot is the seed pod of a magnolia tree. Everything about them kind of fascinates me from a photographic perspective: in the spring they show up as huge white flowers for just a few days before withering and gently floating to the ground. As summer wears on, the central part of each flower balloons in size as the seeds inside it grow. And when the sun stops shining so brightly as autumn encroaches, the seeds inside each pod emerge like bright red jewels just waiting to get snatched up by birds or falling to the soil in the hopes of one day turning into trees of their own.

And through it all, at each stage of life, these seed pods are super fun to take pictures of. (Apologies for ending the sentence with a preposition; sometimes it’s just easier that way.) Even at the end of their life cycle they have such rich colors and textures that it’s hard to not take a bad picture, and when everything lines up just right it’s really something else. I’m not saying that this picture is among the best I’ve ever taken, but that it’s just a fun example of how these seed pods are so enjoyable and gratifying to capture with a camera. Anywho, what you’ve got here is a magnolia seed pod (obviously) with a few elements that elevate it beyond the mundane. First, the light streaming through a sea of big green leaves in the background gives the whole scene a sense of kinetic energy—though perhaps that’s also due to the incredible wind whipping through the tree as I shot this photo. I used auto ISO with a minimum shutter speed of 1/250 to eliminate motion blur from the subject, not the lens, and even then I had to hold the branch in the foreground with my left hand as I took the picture with my right hand.

One-upping the background light, though, is the backlight on the subject. I specifically sought out an angle from which to shoot the photo that resulted in a bright glow, almost like a halo, around the edge of the seed pod. This backlight, or more accurately, rim light, makes the dull browns spring to life and almost pop out of the frame. I also used a mid-sized aperture of f/6.7 to get a depth of field that was shallow but not too shallow.

All that would be enough for an interesting picture, but there was one other element I was able to use to my advantage which, in my opinion, elevates the shot well beyond many others I have taken: the horizontal branch in the foreground. This was quite intentional on my part, and I am so pleased with how the final composition turned out as a result of this added bit of dimensionality. The image goes beyond my usual single-subject-blurry-background style, and instead contains a sense of depth and presence would otherwise simply not be present. It almost feels like the viewer is peeking into a hidden world, peering through the tree branches as if to gaze upon this seed pod in its final act before succumbing to the forces of nature.

So basically, this was a really fun image to take and makes me excited for what I might be able to capture next time I’m in a similar position :)